Pennsylvania Teen Watching Sunset At Park Shot Dead, Possibly By A Hunter

A Pennsylvania teenager was shot dead while he was watching the sunset at a state park with his girlfriend. Authorities said he was possibly killed by a hunter.

Jason Kutt, 18, was sitting by a lake at the Nockamixon State Park with his girlfriend at around 5.15 p.m. Sunday when a bullet hit him in the back of his neck. The teen was transported to a local hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead Monday, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said at a press conference Monday.

Kutt's girlfriend, whose name was not revealed, told officials that she saw a man, dressed in bright orange colored hunting gear, standing behind a gate about 550 feet away from where the couple was sitting, Weintraub said. It wasn't immediately clear if he was involved in the shooting. Weintraub said that an investigation was going on.

Bucks County Police were assisted by a K-9 unit and a state police helicopter to scour through the park but they didn't find a person of interest, NBC Philadelphia reported.

"I believe this was either just a tragic accident or it could be a hunter who wasn't potentially hunting the way they were supposed to," Weintraub said at the press conference. "We don't have any suspects. We don't even know if a crime has been committed yet."

He urged hunters and visitors who were at the park between 5 and 6 p.m. to contact Bucks County detectives if they have any information related to the shooting. "This was a young kid with his whole life ahead of him. He has no apparent enemies, had done nothing wrong, had done nothing to incur any wrath from anyone," Weintraub said about Kutt, who was a 2020 high school graduate.

The park allows deer hunting in authorized hunting areas from mid-September to mid-December every year. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has ordered hunters to use extreme caution at all times given that the park also remains open to visitors and hikers during the period.